Adam felt his gut tighten up when he went into the treatment room with the doctor, saw Sarah still in her school uniform stretched out on the gurney and playing on her phone. The adults that had come to collect her at the school were there, sitting on the left side of the bed, the woman looking like she was forcing herself to stay cool while the man nervously jiggled his leg.

'Dean, Georgette, this is Detective Brennan from the NYPD. He has some questions for your daughter.'

'I remember you,' Georgette said, lifting her head in a slight nod of recognition. 'You were there with your partner, the female detective, asking what Sarah did this morning at school.'

'There's a little more to it than that, Georgie,' Sarah said, then looked at the doctor. 'So, am I sprung or what?'

'When Sarah mentioned she was feeling ill we thought it best to bring her in, just in case,' Dean explained.

'I'm going to be seventeen in March and he acts like I don't know enough to read labels and be careful.' Sarah rolled her eyes, but she smiled as her father kissed her temple.

'You're my one and only baby, of course I'm going worry when your allergies flare.'

'Dean, you're embarrassing her in front of the cute detective,' Georgette admonished her husband and offered a sympathetic smile. 'I do apoligize, sir. What is it you want to talk to us about?'

'I wanted to go over the timeline and your symptoms Sarah. You arrived in Professor Hill's room at what time?'

'At eight-ten. I was half-way there from the cafe when I heard the warning bell.'

'You had class with him for forty-five minutes, correct? Were you feeling your symptoms then?'

Sarah thought about it, then shook her head. 'No, Detective, I didn't.'

'Not to be rude,' Georgette interrupted, 'but we've told this to the doctor already. What is gained from going over it again? Can't you just read his report?'

'Georgie, he's a cop,' Sarah said, as if this should be obvious to the most brain-dead idiot. 'He's got different reasons for asking, right Detective Brennan?'

'Exactly, Sarah. When did you next class start?'

'Five after nine. It runs until nine-fifty, but sometimes Professor Hill will...' Sarah trailed off, her chin wobbling, but she held it together. 'He'd sometimes let us play hookie and go see the music class for the last ten minutes if we demonstrated a high-efficiency work ethic.'

'It was during your second class with him that you began to feel sick, right?'

'Yeah it was...it was right around the same time that Nicky Tee came in the room and sat down in the desk diagonal to mine.'

Georgette hissed through her teeth, gave her husband's arm a swat. 'I told you, Sarah should have asked for a different sponsor! That boy is always breaking the rules because he thinks they don't apply to him!'

'Would you care to elaborate, Missus Ritter?' Adam asked, neatly segueing into the next part of his questioning.

'He's never respected the allergy rules of the school. He's had suspensions over it twice.' Georgette let out a huff of indignation; the single sound had Adam realizing this woman, despite Sarah's lack of the title for her, was the teenage girl's mother where it counted. 'Some parents even wanted him expelled after the last one.'

'What

'Georgie, you're blowing it out of proportions,' Sarah tried to protest, and focused on Adam. 'In our biology class last year, we all had to sign on for a different bodily function. I did mine how the saliva glands work. Nicky Tee did his on allergic reactions and he...got a little carried away with his demonstration.'

'Carried away? They had to call the paramedics when Roland McFarland broke into hives from being around the dairy samples he was using.'

'Roland McFarland, he's the other student in your independent study period?' Adam asked.

'Yeah, he is, but he's gone to Scotland for a family wedding all week.'

'Okay.' He made notes, then looked at Sarah. 'Did anyone else in the school or staff know that Professor Hill was deathly allergic to peanuts, like you?'

'It's one of those things that's like a, what are they called, well-known secrets,' she replied, 'just like everyone knows our French teacher writes Harlequin romance novels on the side and our phys-ed professor used to play for the Jets. We knew better than to even think about peanut butter in Professor Hill's presence.'

'What are you driving at, Detective,' Dean asked with the worry only a parent could fathom.

'Just trying to get some background on the victim, Mister Ritter.' Adam rose, took his card out of his pocket. 'I know Beckett gave you one of these too, but it never hurts to have a back-up.'

Sarah took the card, her pretty plump cheeks going pink when her fingertips brushed his as she took the card. 'Thank you.'

Adam nodded and left the room; the moment he was clear of the hospital he dialed Beckett's cellphone. 'Hey, we need to look even more in depth at Nicky Tomasi.'

'I'm right there with you. I got the disciplinary files from Anna Leung and guess who has a pretty detailed school wrap-sheet?'

'I'm going with the Easter bunny.'

'Nah, he's a chocolate pusher, that's a legal stimulant. Nicky Tomasi's file says that he's on what the school called the Hit-List.'

'Tell me more, bwana,' Adam said and Beckett had to laugh.

'When you get back to the precinct.'

Beckett hung up, then looked at the murder board as she waited for the warrant to come through from Markaway. She couldn't shake the feeling like she needed to call her son, or at the least email him, before she could move forward with the case. Adam was good since he had the prep-school background to speak the language of potential suspects but she knew how to handle the parents on this one. She had a different perspective being the parent between the two of them.

Pulling out her iPhone she opened her personal email app and sent a quick message to RJ's school email - hey my little prince, hope you're having a good day. We're working hard to catch the bad guys. Are you going to have a lot of homework tonight? Love Mumum xoxo.

Beckett pressed Send and put her phone back in her pocket almost like Leo Bloom with his blue blanket. That was step one; step two would happen in two minutes. She picked up her deskphone and dialed home, smiling when she heard her husband's voice.

'Unless this is my wife offering me very naughty official NYPD lunch-time sex, go away

'You have half of that demand right.'

'Hey, sweetie. How's your day going.'

'Umm...' Suddenly at a loss for words, Beckett scratched the back of her head; her short silence was the only opening Castle needed.

'Kate, what's going on?'

'I...a teacher was poisoned this morning at Calliope Thrace. Someone put peanut oil in his coffee sending him into anaphylactic shock-'

'You think it'd be wise to keep RJ home a few days?'

'I don't know, I...schools are supposed to be safe,' she blurted out. 'You never think twice about sending your kid to a building full of other kids and adults, but you're sending them into the world alone to a certain degree, right?'

'Kate, RJ goes to a very good school, you and I both know that, and we also know this isn't the first time Calliope Thrace has had problems. Remember those foreign exchange students?'

'That was one of my first cases when you were on your writing sabbatical.'

'Exactly.'

Beckett heard Castle shift in his leather office chair, click a few keys on his laptop. 'They've got a history already, and I wouldn't be surprised if everyone there gives you full co-operation so they can get over their shady past and present and move on.'

'Well, the deputy headmistress is pretty forthcoming, but there's still something about the timeline that isn't right, so- oh, I gotta go,' she interrupted herself as she saw the email icon pop on her computer screen. 'Warrants just came through for the phone and financial records.'

'Go get'em Detective.'

'Sorry you didn't get your lunch-time phone sex.'

'Guess I'll have to settle for the real thing later tonight.'